The Future Circular Collider (FCC) study is a design study for a post-LHC particle accelerator within the 21st century.

Expanding our understanding of the fundamental laws of
nature requires the energy frontier to be pushed further.
Reaching this goal within the 21st century in an economically
sustainable and energy efficient way calls for a
large circular collider.

The Future Circular Collider study
(FCC) explores the feasibility
of several particle collider
scenarios with the aim of significantly
expanding the current energy and luminosity frontiers.

To reach this goal within the 21st century in an reliable, sustainable and efficient way, a large circular collider is needed.

The FCC study is the core of a globally coordinated
strategy of actions designed to converge
towards a single vision. It includes the development of physics cases, concepts for detectors, and particle accelerator scenarios. The study also comprises the description of infrastructures, cost and reliability studies, as well as the preparation of a global collaboration with appropriate governance structures.

By the end of 2018, the FCC collaboration will deliver a
conceptual design report, together with preliminary cost
estimates and feasibility assessments.

The conceptual design report and an active R&D portfolio
of new technologies developed in collaboration with
leading research institutes and industries will lay the foundations
for the implementation of a future circular collider.

WHY NOW

The Large Hadron Collider at
CERN with its High Luminosity
upgrade is the world's primary
instrument for exploring the
energy frontier until 2035.
This
defines the time window for
preparing a post-LHC high
energy physics research infrastructure.

LEP and LHC have shown that a time frame of approximately 20 years is appropriate for the design, construction and operation of large research infrastructures.

This significant lead time calls for
a coordinated effort. The goal is to ensure the seamless
continuation of the world's
particle physics programme after
the LHC era.

PHYSICS

PHYSICS

The discovery of the Higgs boson
was a milestone in the long-standing
effort to complete the
Standard Model of Particle
Physics.

This theory describes the
laws governing most of the
known universe.

Yet the Standard
Model cannot explain several
observations, such as:

The FCC, with its high precision and high energy reach, will extend well beyond the LHC the search of new particles and interactions, that could hold the key to answer these questions and understand unexplained.

The precision study of the properties of the Higgs particle remains a keystone of the experimental programme at the LHC and beyond for a long time. This is a well-defined challenge, which provides a set of clear benchmarks to assess the value of a future facility, and to compare alternative proposals with each other.

The FCC study explores the
physics cases for different collider
scenarios in a coordinated way
that embraces discovery and
precision physics.

The study includes
experiment and detector concept
studies to allow new physics
to be explored. Detector technologies
will be based on experiment
concepts, the projected
collider performances and the
physics cases.

Creativity and innovation are
needed to develop the physics
case, meet the required accelerator
parameters and realise
unprecedented experiments.

ACCELERATORS

ACCELERATORS

The FCC study develops three concepts for colliders

Hadron-hadron Collider

The great potential of high-energy hadron colliders to discover new particles and new phenomena has been demonstrated in the past decades following the rapid development of accelerator technology. The last building blocks of the Standard Model have been directly observed by experiments at previous hadron colliders (SppS, Tevatron, and LHC).

A future 100 TeV hadron collider (protons and heavy-ions) will have an energy seven times that of the LHC, a step equal to the one that took us from the Tevatron to the LHC. Such a collider will give access to the smallest scales and the most energetic phenomena in nature.

Billions of Higgs bosons and top quarks will be produced, creating new opportunities for the study of rare decays and flavour physics. A future hadron-hadron collider will allow the study of Higgs and gauge boson interactions to be extended to energies well above the TeV scale, exposing in detail the mechanism underlying the breaking of electroweak symmetry.

Lepton-lepton Collider

The second branch of the FCC design study (FCC-ee) is a high-luminosity, high-precision lepton (e+ e-) collider located in the same tunnel as a possible precursor to the hadron collider, and complementary to it.

An electron-positron (e+ - e-) collider will perform high-precision studies of the Higgs boson and other known particles. Delivering collision energies between 90 and 350 GeV and high luminosities it will offer unique sensitivity to possible new phenomena at energies of tens of TeV.

A future lepton machine would bring the comparison between theory and experiment to a completely new level allowing for profound investigations of the electroweak symmetry breaking, and begin a broad search for new physics over several orders of magnitude in energy.

Hadron-lepton Collider

The study for a hadron-lepton collider aims to bring the physics of deep inelastic electron-proton scattering to a new horizon.

Lepton-nucleus scattering has made seminal contributions such as the discovery of quarks, the disambiguation of the weak neutral current couplings and the determination at HERA of high quark and gluon densities in protons.

A hadron-lepton collider could be the finest microscope for studying quark-gluon interactions and possible further substructure of matter in the world.

This programme, accompanied by unprecedented measurements of strong and electroweak interaction phenomena, the hadron-electron collider is a unique complement to the exploration of nature at high energies within the FCC complex.

TECHNOLOGIES

TECHNOLOGIES

Technologically, the FCC design enters in a completely new region.
The realisation of such machines
relies on leapfrog advancements
of key enabling technologies.

The foundations for these
advancements are being laid in
focused R&D programmes:

The effective interplay of different science and technology domains-accelerator physics, high-field magnets, cryogenics, vacuum, civil engineering, material science, superconductors, to name but a few. This integral approach that brings together experts from different fields is the key to success.

The extensive R&D programme in these areas presents a number of opportunities for universities, research institutes, and the industry.

Physics

Accelerators

Experiments & Detectors

Implementation

Infrastructures

Cost/Value Optimization

COLLABORATION

COLLABORATION

The international FCC collaboration, hosted by CERN,
brings, as of April 2016, more than 73 institutes from around the
globe.

It is open to universities, laboratories and research
centres of scientific excellence, as well as to high-tech
companies. This set up forms the core of a globally coordinated
strategy of actions designed to converge
towards a single vision.

The FCC study prepares the ground for
geographically well-balanced
contributions, leveraging the
competences of world experts in
the numerous areas concerned.
It also ensures that the entire
worldwide scientific community is
involved from the very start of the
endeavour.

The FCC study aims to form an international platform for the realization of a next-generation, frontier particle physics research infrastructure, leveraging existing assets and available experience.

Society & Industry

SOCIETY & INDUSTRY

The past has shown that pushing back technology and engineering frontiers in the area of high-energy particle physics and collider design generates significant benefits for our society.

Industry

The FCC Study integrates tightly with high-tech industries that has developed in Europe, partly due to previous efforts in fundamental research. A specific focus of the study is to act as an innovation catalyser for large and medium sized high-tech companies, leading to products and services that emerge from particle accelerator R&D. Strong emphasis is given on superconductivity, novel materials and processing techniques, modelling and simulation tools. Further areas will be included as the study progresses with the preparation of a Conceptual Design Report.

The study is open to well established companies in Big Science projects and to small and mid-size partners, which are vectors of emerging technologies.

Environment

CERN's members are committed to ensuring the best possible protection of the environment. To achieve this goal, environmental requirements and guidelines established by the Organization's host states, European Directives, international standards and best practices are applied across all activities including the concept developments of future infrastructures.

The FCC study takes into account the ecological and financial implications of energy consumption and considers energy management particularly important. The FCC collaboration strives to find ways to make a future collider efficient and to develop a sustainable operation scenario. Several strategies are considered: designing equipment and infrastructure to be energy efficient, educating users on responsible energy use, recovering energy from waste energy for other purposes.

Gender Equality

Particle physics and accelerator technology-related research are still largely male-dominated and have significant need to improve the equal representation of women and men.

The FCC study is an international endeavour, fostering cross-disciplinary research in many knowledge domains. Such a set-up provides an ideal opportunity to strengthen women's representation in the global science landscape within the next decades.

The FCC collaboration is committed to work towards equal representation of women and men at all levels and in all disciplines covered by the study.